Abandoned Royal Bengal tiger cub rescued from Kaziranga National Park, handed over to state zoo

Kaziranga: A Royal Bengal tiger cub was rescued from Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve in Assam and was handed over to the state Zoo in Guwahati on Tuesday.

The mother of the cub had abandoned the cub inside the jungle of Kaziranga Tiger Reserve, said Zoo DFO Tejas Mariswamy. The cub was taken care of and provided with proper medical treatment in the zoo.

The Bengal tiger belongs to a specific population of the Panthera tigris subspecies which is a native of the Indian subcontinent. The species is mostly threatened by poaching, loss and fragmentation of habitat, and was estimated at comprising fewer than 2,500 wild individuals by 2011.

In the year 2010, the tiger population was estimated at 1,706-1,909 individuals, however, by 2018, the population had increased to an estimated 2,603-3,346 individuals.

Around 300-500 tigers are estimated in Bangladesh, 220-274 tigers in Nepal and 103 tigers in Bhutan.

Along with the iconic Greater one-horned rhinoceros, the Kaziranga National park is the breeding ground of elephants, wild water buffalo and swamp deer. Over time, the tiger population has also increased in Kaziranga, and that's the reason why Kaziranga was declared as the Tiger Reserve in 2006.

A few years ago, the Golden Tiger was also seen in the park. While Royal Bengal Tiger is in itself an endangered species in India, the Golden Tiger is the only one of its kind recorded in the wild in the entire world, in the 21st century.

Although the Golden Tiger is seen in the zoo, this was for the first time, it was spotted in the wild.

A golden tiger is believed to be a rare morph of the Royal Bengal tiger, which happens because of recessive genes in individuals due to inbreeding with fragmented populations, which in turn is caused because of the destruction of natural habitat and loss of connectivity.

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